


How Soon is Now

by Citrus_Twist



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek Uses His Words, M/M, Magic!Stiles, Mama Stilinski Feels, Other Mythical Creatures are a Thing, POV Derek, POV Stiles, Pack Dynamics, Siren!Stiles, Work In Progress, sterek
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-09-17
Packaged: 2017-12-12 06:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citrus_Twist/pseuds/Citrus_Twist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The alpha pack has finally been defeated, but some wounds take time to heal. And Stiles trying to avoid the supernatural only leads to having the biggest bad moving into his house. It's bad enough that he's got to deal with a sourwolf but what's with all the bathroom harassment?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How Soon is Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How Soon is Now (Theme to Charmed)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEq8DBxm0J4

“But Dad, Derek Hale? Really?” Stiles loved his dad. He really did. But this was about the worst idea he’s ever heard of. And he hangs out with Scott. 

“Stiles did you see the bills this month?” And Stiles swallows. Hard. Cause, although he isn’t suppose to look at them, a.) of course he’s looked at them and 2.) his dad knows him well enough to know he looked at them.

“But Derek Hale? charged with multiple felonies? What is the station going to think about this?” Stiles said, using just about anything he could think of to not have Derek living in the spare bedroom.

“You’re right, they probably won’t like it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s got to happen.” Papa Stilinski was slowly getting upset...well, more upset, which meant Stiles should probably stop pressing his luck here, “Unless you stashed 20 thousand dollars in all those secrets you’ve been keeping these past few months, you’ll have to deal with having an extra person around.” His father sighed and ran a hand over his face and through his hair. “Stiles, I can’t go back and make everything okay, and I know now that I can’t fully protect you from all of the crazy things you just have to get mixed up in. At least with Derek here I know I won’t have to worry about your safety as much.”

Wow, what a low blow, right in the feels really dad, you had to play the guilt card?“So what, now that you’ve talked to him Derek is some super safe ultra protector?” Stiles interrupted, upset that his dad has gone to Derek without telling him.. He should have definitely told Stiles before going to Derek. 

“Do you see anyone else willing to talk to me about this and give me all the facts?” the Sheriff finally said, “As it is I’ve had that room up for rent for six months and no one has even bothered to inquire. So I might as well take advantage of having someone in the house that can protect us if we need it and who has dealt with you enough to be at least a little endured to your ‘charms’ is a worthwhile investment.” Stiles’ dad said, the tone of his voice clearly stating ‘you will do as I say’. Stiles sighed in response, which was returned by his father. It was alway hard when he was scolded by his dad. Where “scolding” was basically any slightly disciplinary talk they had that was laced with a bit of disappointment.

“Listen,” John Stilinski said, “I know this isn’t your first choice of circumstance, but look on the brightside sport; the pack is going to have to be here quite a bit if Derek is staying here.” Which, yeah, Stiles guessed was true. But it was going to make things awkward since, in the aftermath of the alpha pack, Stiles only remained in contact with Scott.

But hey, maybe he should look on the bright side...if he could find said bright side anywhere in the tri-state area.

“When does he move in?” Cause Stiles knew his dad already said yes, and Derek was going to be living with them.

“Friday of this week.” His dad said. In three days. Awesome. Bet ten bucks his dad is going to ask him ‘to get the guest room cleaned up by then.

“Can you get the guest room cleaned up by then?” His dad asked. And the universe officially owed him ten dollars, just saying. 

“Yeah, yeah. It’ll be done by Thursday night.” Stiles said, miserable. 

“Thanks, son.” John said, reaching in for an awkward hug before Stiles went up to his room. He couldn’t really blame his dad exactly, they did need the money. And Derek needed a place to stay since his apartment literally got pulled out of the building by the Alpha pack.

To keep the story short; Alpha pack stepped in all big and bad and wanted to “test” Derek and the pack because the Alpha power had been claimed so many times (yes, apparently 3 shifts in power is a lot for werewolves.) Where testing him apparently meant destroying everything they could get their hands on. All in all, a lot of people died, like A LOT, good people to like -- no he wouldn’t go there. Sheriff Stilinski probably would have lost his job again if Derek hadn't stepped in to help cover everything up. As in, actually called in help from some werewolf friends in the FBI who provided a cover story involving a serial killer with trained dogs that just happened to take a liking to how isolated Beacon Hills was, not too far from the truth actually. In the end, Stiles decided that, especially with Melissa McCall knowing everything supernatural, his dad probably should as well. Which lead to one hell of a crazed conversation, a house arrest of epic proportions, and overprotectiveness out of the wazoo. Eventually the pack and hunters worked together well enough to pick off the Alphas when they got too headstrong. However it was in the final confrontation that Stiles got a pretty wicked scar on his back and a mild fear of glowing red eyes while saving Derek’s life. After Derek retaliated by killing Deucalion in the most painful way possible the number of werewolves willing to screw with them drastically decreased. Which was nice. Did he mention he saved Derek’s butt?

It had been two months and he hadn’t talked with the sourwolf since. He hadn’t talked to the pack much either. It was all too raw. Thankfully, after all the deaths, the schools decided to open three weeks late, meaning they had about a month before school started up again. Stiles was definitely not looking forward to that having to face the stupid Alpha again. He honestly wanted to just forget the past eight months of his life. Like they never happened. Yeah, he still woke up from nightmares with men getting slowly crushed to death by machinery, or his next door neighbor getting her skin peeled off layer upon layer by some crazed Alpha. And he was just there, absolutely powerless to stop it.

Stiles shuddered and he opened up netflix on his computer to watch something and get his mind off things. Match Game seemed like an awesome choice.

~  
~  
Friday came up way too fast. And the three days prior were full of quite a bit of old GSN shows and Charmed, because he decided he was going to re-watch the series.

Stiles stared at Derek. He was in his “charming” mode and it was weird. Like, seriously, it was freaking him out.

“Sheriff, I really can’t thank you for giving me a place to stay. I appreciate it.” Derek said, and if the Alpha wasn’t being genuine, his dad would’ve called out that bullshit in a heartbeat. But Derek was being sincere which was the weirdest thing about this whole situation. His dad grunted as he helped move stuff inside.

“Not likes it’s free, right? Besides, it’ll be nice to have the house noisy again.” His dad said, setting down a box. There weren’t many, only four or five.

“The pack won’t be here all the time. Trust me, I would never put someone in that kind of pain.” Derek said with his stupid grin on.

“Heh. Yeah, I have my own ball of annoying to deal with.” The sheriff said pointedly not looking at Stiles who was slightly offended at that. By the way, thanks dad, “Alright, I’ll let you get to unpacking Derek. Dinner’s at seven” The Sheriff said, walking out of the room, giving Stiles the “don’t annoy him” Sheriff glare of death. Stiles skulked by the doorway as Derek turned around and started unpacking.

“Did you need something?” He said to Stiles after a moment. Stiles flinched at the harsh tone, but didn’t react besides.

“Well I was going to offer my help, but I guess with that attitude...” Stiles said heading for the door. Derek turned around and rushed over to him slamming the door shut (not too hard that it would cause his dad worry) and Stiles against it, getting up in his face.

“Listen here; you don’t get to abandon literally everyone in the pack for two months and then mouth off to me about my shitty attitude.” Stiles felt himself blush in embarrassment and maybe possibly there was just a little bit of shame there too? Cause yeah, holing himself up in his room with absolutely no contact with the outside world was a bit low. “Who would have thought, that might put someone in a shitty mood?” Wow. So Derek was pissed. And maybe not under-exaggerating when he said all of that.

“Got it, sorry, I won’t bring it up again.” Stiles said, realizing very quickly that he should probably just leave. Stiles Stilinski did not often admit defeat. There were only two other times in his life he can remember he did. Once, when he was 13 and he realized that no, there is not a way to feasibly create a flux capacitor, and just a few months back when he finally gave up on Lydia. And now, when he really didn’t want to confront things Derek was saying. He was tired of supernatural bullshit, SO epically done with it, and knew that he was going to become more messed up then he already was if he had this conversation with perhaps the least empathetic being on the planet. That currently was releasing him from the wall. 

Stiles knew himself. Once he talked about things, they would heal up. But he also knew that he could only talk about this with someone who cared enough to deal with all the fragile bits of himself. He could hold on for quite a long time waiting for that to come around too. Stiles was good at waiting. It helped that he ignored everything even remotely supernatural (except Scott and a few instances of Issac and Boyd.) But apparently, that was over now. Because of Derek.

“You can unpack that box.” Derek pointing to one of cloths, “Then get out.” Stiles did so, not bothering to comment on his bleek color choice of black and gray. He unpacked in silence, Derek unpacking books and DVD’s probably so he didn’t have to be near Stiles. Stiles unpacked the clothes as fast as he could; Pru, Piper, and Phoebe would be able to solve his woes. When he made to leave Derek grabbed his arm. And it was oddly gentle. And warm. Very warm. Derek sighed.

“Listen, we’re going to be living together for a while so we should at least try to get along.” Stiles could see the logic in that. Except that it was coming from Derek’s mouth. Whose normal answer for things was ‘let’s rip it out with our teeth.’ “I’m not going to apologize for what I said earlier because I’m right and you know it.” Yeah, but it would’ve been nice you dick. “And at some point we’re talking about what happened with that.” Derek said looking into Stiles’ eyes with his determined ‘this-is-happening-on-pain-of-death’ face. Wow, he knew a lot about Derek’s faces...

“Okay. Uh, sorry that it uh...upset you so much. And yeah, we should be trying to get along.” Stiles said. Hey, he could totally be reasonable if the stupid-wolf decided he was going to be. Derek let go of his arm, giving him a nod.  
“I appreciate the apology. You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to.” He said to Stiles. Fat chance, Derek ole’ buddy’ole pal. Stiles nodded and left anyway, hearing Derek sigh, exasperated as he did so. Oh my god, he even knew what Derek’s sighs sounded like. How much time had he spent with the Alpha anyway over the whole Alpha thing anyway...?

Too long. Probably too long. Must be, if he could read Derek that easily. Stiles sighed too, turning Charmed back on and getting to work doing absolutely nothing. When dinner came around he dismissed himself as being not hungry, definitely a lie, but he could eat something later on when he didn’t have to be around Derek. Because avoiding things. He was good at that and he liked it.

 

The next five days were pretty much the same as any other day of summer. Stiles got up, and enjoyed anything that could help him forget about the elephant in the room. The big bad wolf in the house? Well, just...Pretty much anything that allowed him to stay isolated in his room. The only time he ever actually left said room was for an evening run. Because 1.) he hated hot weather and there was no way in hell he was getting up before 8am during summer and 2.) he really liked the evening, night-time thing. Like the air was different, the dew, the darkness itself, it was all really calming. Which was definitely his goal for the summer, staying calm. So he ran nightly to get out all his energy.

Derek got up early and did werewolf things for most of the morning. Stiles figured it was running in the woods and eating raw bunnies for breakfast and whatever else werewolves did when they got up at the unholy hour of 6am. Derek came back to the house twice before heading out again; once for lunch and a second time for dinner. He only came back to the house permanently around 11pm. And no, Stiles absolutely positively was not keeping track of Derek’s schedule. Issac and Byod normally joined them for lunch or dinner as well. The pack had only met once since he was there, that Wednesday, and Stiles buried himself in his room, claiming to be deciphering the Bestiary. And yeah, he did get a little work done, but then tumblr was calling his name and before he knew it he knew it, an hour had past. He sighed and switched back to...

Balor. Who was apparently from some weird cyclops-ish giant race or something. It was an old Irish tale and didn’t make a whole lot of sense (not that the book did to begin with) but it had a ton of names that Stiles was decently sure were in Anglo-saxon.

“You actually making some headway in that thing?” A voice said. And Stiles totally did not scream like a little girl. It was simply a manly high pitched scream. Really.

“Oh my god, Scott, could you knock?!” Stiles said, turning back to his computer and taking in a deep breath. Because, jesus, he was tired of silent werewolf feet.

“Wow, sorry dude, didn’t mean to scare you.” Scott said coming to sit beside Stiles. He was drenched in sweat and smelled disgusting. Stiles grimaced at him.

“Dude, why do you smell like you rolled around in something dead?” Stiles covered his mouth with his hand. Scott blushed and backed off a little bit.

“T-that’s not it! We were just going for a run and then had combat practice...” Scott said nervously.

“And did combat practice involve eating something dead?.....oh my god, it did! Really Scott?” Stiles said, scooting away from the werewolf himself. Geez, did they kill a deer or something? “Dude, go take a shower!” 

“But I don’t have any cloths!” Scott said, mouth gaping at him. Shit, Stiles stomach was getting upset.

“You can borrow some of mine, just go, I’m going to puke, dude, get out!” Scott grumbled but left the room, and Stiles immediately opened his window, taking in a deep breath. He saw Derek outside, shirtless his bloody shirt thrown over his shoulder. He was turned away from the house, talking to Isaac. They turned for a moment, and he ignored them making a face and turning back to his computer, the gross smell already clearing out of his room. He continued taking notes to the best of his ability. Curse Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon on top of archaic latin. 

Stiles hated to admit it, but Derek had been a surprisingly awesome housemate. He’d cooked one night, meaning Stiles didn’t have to, and surprisingly didn’t kill them all, Stiles didn’t even know venison could actually taste that good. He also left Stiles to just kind of...hole up in his room like he wanted. They hadn’t actually talked since Derek moved in other than Stiles commenting on Derek’s epic cooking skills. Which Stiles was grateful for. Derek also woke Stiles up one morning (if you consider 11am “the morning”. Stiles definitely did.) He promised his dad he’d meet up with him for lunch and he slept through his alarm. Okay, so, Derek probably got a lot of amusement scaring the living shit out of Stiles, but it was still helpful. Having the pack over was nice too, although he didn’t really talk to them too much. 

So basically, Stiles was warming up to the idea of having Derek living in the spare room. Warming up to it enough that later that night, after Scott left having played Castle Crashers together for a good few hours, Stiles went up to apologize to Derek. Cause he really did want things to get better. 

It was only eight when Stiles knocked on Derek’s door. He knew Derek was there, the Alpha probably taking a break after their pack meeting. He answered with only a slightly smaller scowl than usual.

“What?” Derek said. Stiles saw the tv in the corner of the room paused. And...holy shit...was Derek watching Dr. Who?! Cause that was definitely Matt Smith’s face!

“Dude, are you watching Dr. Who?” Stiles asked. Derek sighed.

“So you came here to interrupt what I was doing to ask if I was watching a show? How appropriate.” Derek grunted at him. Stiles made a face at him, starting to regret coming to apologize. Really, he only asked one question.

“I was just wondering. You don’t have to get all sassy.” Stiles said. Derek perked an eyebrow at him.

“This coming from actual sass master Stiles Stilinski.” Stiles wasn’t sure if he wanted to hug Derek or punch him for that one. They kinda evened each other out. He still ended up smiling a bit.

“Okay, just forget I asked. I came over just to, uh...” Stiles sighed. It hurt his pride to admit this one great fallacy in the radiance that was Stiles Stilinski. He looked away, knowing Derek’s eyebrow was still all up and he was giving Stiles an expectant look. “To say sorry for ditching the pack for so long.” He met Derek’s gaze,” That was a dick move on my part. And uh...I missed you.” For just a split second, Stiles saw Derek’s face soften. And then he was back to normal scowly Derek. 

“Yeah, it was a dick move.” You just don’t pull your punches, do you Derek? He sighed leaning against the door frame. “Next time if you need some space just say something, give us a heads up. I understand not wanting to deal with everything, but not wanting to deal with it and shelling yourself off are two different things.” Was Derek. Derek. Of all people of this world, giving Stiles a lecture on properly communicating. Welp, the world is over everyone, rapture is finally here. Derek was actually calm and pretty chill about everything.

“Yeah, got it, just, uhh. Are we good?” And wow, that got both eyebrows. And an eye roll.

“You’re an idiot.” Derek said walking back into his room, the door still open. He sat down in a rugged beanbag chair, a freaking beanbag chair before scowling at him.

“Are you coming?” Derek only half snapped at him. Stiles scrambled into the room deciding the floor was going to be good enough.

“That’s what she said.” Stiles mumbled with a grin as he sat down. Derek rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Really? The great comedian is willing to drop as low as ‘that’s what she said’ jokes?” Derek said. Stiles’ grin widened.

“Dude, if I can make you scowl that much with one phrase, it’s totally worth it.” Derek scowled even harder and slapped the back of his head. Stiles laughed through the stinging. It surprised him that Derek didn’t hit him harder, especially compared to what he was used to, and he could have sworn he saw Derek’s lips twitch in a smile for just a second. Stiles didn’t bring it up though, cause Derek turned pressed play. And yeah, Stiles already saw episode 215, but heck, he really liked Matt Smith as the Doctor and didn’t mind rewatching it. They both sat in silence as it played.

“I’ve never been sure if the ending to that episode was a let down or totally awesome.” Stiles said as the credits rolled. Derek flipped through netflix to the next episode.

“It was a good ending.” He said shortly. Stiles looked at him confused.

“Why do you say that?” Stiles asked.

“Wouldn’t you want to pirate a spaceship and explore the universe?” Derek said. Stiles didn’t get a chance to answer as the next episode started. And yeah, that is actually a pretty epic idea. Damn, if Stiles got a spaceship...  
Things would probably get freakier than they already were. Wait, what if there were alien werewolves?! Isn’t that movie...?

They watched another two episodes, talking in short bursts whenever there was a gap. Derek, apparently, enjoyed Matt Smith as a doctor, but Stiles knew that Christopher Eccelston was better which almost started an all out brawl, though they both agreed Dona was totally the most kickass Companion. 

“How did you even get into Doctor Who, dude?” Stiles asked as their third episode finished. Derek was silent for a moment.

“Laura got me into it.” He said quietly. He got up from the chair, stretched, and turned off the tv, clearly saying (without actually saying it) that tv with Derek was done for the night. It was just after 11. 

“You aren’t going to bed, are you?” Stiles asked, getting up as well. Damn, his butt hurt. Definitely bringing in a chair next time.

“Yeah, if I plan on getting up at a normal hour tomorrow.” Derek said. Stiles blanched at him.

“Normal? Dude, 6am is not normal. It is so far from normal we might as well be in a James Cameron movie.” Stiles said, heading towards the door.

“Eloquent.” Derek said, smirking just a bit. “Either way you should go to bed now too. I’m waking you up tomorrow to go for a run.” Stiles sighed flailing.

“No way! I refuse to get up at such an ungodly hour!” Derek rolled his eyes.

“I’m going to sleep now.” Derek said, “Turn off the lights on your way out.” Stiles grumbled, and did just that, slamming the door just a bit too hard. They both knew he wasn’t actually as mad as he said he was. In fact, he would be slightly excited to go on a run with Derek, as insane as that sounds. Except it was going to be a 7 in the morning. He had to admit, Derek was actually really good company, and Stiles was not a big fan of running alone. He’d do it, but running was always better with someone else there, even if you couldn’t talk.

Stiles grabbed clothes, his mac, and went to take a shower before bed. He got undressed and sighed. Getting up at 6 in the morning. Who the hell does that? Apparently stupid sourwolves who don’t know the meaning of vacation. Stiles threw a towel over his mac as he turned on some music. And the starting song of choice was the Charmed theme because he had had it stuck in his head for a week and if he had to deal with the supernatural it might as well be the kick ass kind.

Stiles wasn’t one of those people who sang in the shower...well, okay, that would be a lie, but no one could prove it, other than his dad. The dad that was currently doing a double shift at the station, and with Derek was trying to sleep probably dead to the world, he was basically alone. And if Stiles admitted it, he loved singing. He probably would never admit it even on his death bed, but he loved singing. Music was just awesome, and...yeah. Expression and things. He remembered his mom singing him lullaby’s when he was a kid. They always put him right to sleep. He had great pitch, which he definitely got from his mom, cause his dad was basically tone deaf, but the actual sound of his voice...? Ehhh, not the greatest. Like, it was probably really bad in all honesty. But he enjoyed it and didn’t sing in front of other people so the world could suck it.

He was just starting to wash out his soapy hair when Stiles heard the bathroom door crash open.


	2. Room of Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That time when everyone wanted to interrupt Stiles showering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for like, one of the most unnerving songs.
> 
> Room of Angel-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4rXbSnk2ng

“SON OF A BIT--! SHIT!” Stiles said as he got a ton of shampoo in his eyes. He quickly doused them and stuck his head out of the shower door, eyes still stinging. He grabbed for a towel, dabbing at his eyes till they felt better, and then threw down the towel.

“Uh...” And Stiles’ eyes flicked wide open.

“Derek, what the fuck!?” Stiles said scrambling for a towel to cover himself up with. Yeah, Derek probably couldn’t see anything. But he wasn’t taking any chances. The Alpha looked almost more surprised than Stiles, his eyes wider than Stiles had ever seen them. He just stood there with this absolutely horrified look. 

“Derek!! Dude, what the hell are you doing?!” Stiles yelled at him again. Derek seemed to wake up from whatever stupor he was in before scowling heavily at Stiles.

“Stiles...” He said, looking at him.

“No, I’m the Cat in the fucking Hat, yes my name is Stiles, now get out! Whoa, whoawhoawhoa!” Stiles said as Derek moved about as fast as the Weeping freaking Angels, getting right in his face. Stiles blushed and pulled the towel closer to him.  
“You were singing.” 

“No you idiot I was baking a pie. That does not give you the right to barge in on my young unprotected self! I’m 147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bones here, so back up and get out! What the-?!!” Derek decided that ‘get out’ actually meant get closer, stuffing his face right up to Stiles’ and narrowing his eyes. It was about that time that Stiles noticed Derek’s lack of clothing. It was good motivation to keep eye contact with the werewolf. He scoffed, whipping around to head back out the door, muttering something that sounded almost like an apology.

Stiles gaped after him for a moment before huffing and continuing his shower. Without the singing. And definitely not thinking about Derek in his underwear watching him take a shower. Cause that would be an awkward thing to be thinking about. Definitely not thinking that. Stiles sighed as he got out of the shower. What the hell was that even about? Yeah, Stiles sang in the shower. Wow, no big deal, lots of people sang in the shower...just because he couldn’t think of any other people he knew personally doesn’t mean they weren’t out there.

Stiles peeked outside the door to make sure that Derek had, indeed, gone to bed, before grabbing his Mac and heading back to his room. He lied in bed for quite a while thinking about Derek the peeping wolf. Creeper. It took way too long for him to finally fall asleep.

~  
~

“Stiles, get up.” Stiles jumped as he felt his comforter ripped off the bed. And it was cold. And too early. Way too early. It wasn’t even light outside yet. Stiles groaned, confused at what was going on. “I told you I was going to wake you up.” Stiles blinked, looking up at the voice.

“Derek..? Uggghhhh....” He threw a pillow over his face, lying back down. Dear jesus. Derek was a morning person.  
“Stiles I said GET UP.” Stiles felt a grip on his ankles before he was literally tossed into the air.

“OH MY GOD!” Stiles somehow managed not to die. And to land with a soft thump on his bed. Derek stood over him scowling. “Dude, what the hell was that for?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” The creeper wolf was smirking at him. 

“Stupid peeping creeper...” Stiles grumbled, getting out of bed and stretching. Derek just kind of stared at him (like the creepy Alpha he was.)

“I’ll be waiting downstairs. Hurry up and get ready.” He said before turning around and leaving. Back to being surly as hell, it seems. Guess that’s what happens when you interrupt someone taking a shower...which, okay yeah, doesn’t make much sense but whatever.

“Alright, alright, I’m going.” Stiles called after him. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and got changed into his gym shorts and a t-shirt. God, this- why did they have to do this at the butt crack of dawn. He sighed, and made a quick pitstop at the bathroom before heading downstairs. Derek was waiting for him at the door. He nodded when Stiles joined him and handed him a water bottle.

They didn’t say anything after that. It was pretty obvious just how much Derek was holding back as they ran. After the first mile, Stiles was huffing, no tired enough to stop, but huffing, while Derek had just broken a sweat. If you’d call the few drops of perspiration going down his back sweating. Four miles into the run and Stiles had to stop for a bit, just walk and drink some water. Because damn it to hell, Derek set a hard pace to follow. The werewolf sighed as Stiles began to walk, coming up to walk next to him. 

“Are you trying to kill me?” Stiles huffed out. Derek rolled his eyes.

“You need to get in shape.” Stiles gaped at him.

“Yeah, that’s why I was running. And not trying to pop a lung.”

“Then you’re doing it wrong.” Derek said shortly. And there was that stupid half-smirk again.

“How the hell do you run incorrectly?! You just go!” Stiles said, exasperated. Derek shrugged.

“You messed it up. So there you go.” Stiles narrowed his eyes at him. They continued walking in silence. And it was bothersome. But soon enough, Stiles picked up the pace and started running again. It only took two and a half more miles for Stiles to be completely wiped. He stopped again, this time hunched over for a moment to catch his breath.

“Dude...you don’t even...” Derek was sweating now, but his breathing was still relatively even and he was glowering at Stiles. “Don’t even try that..you’re the one...who decided I had...to come along.” 

“Yes. And you’re coming with from now on too.” Stiles groaned and started walking. Something had been bothering him. And he might as well dodge the whole having to run more with Derek by bringing it up. Derek was walking behind him. The very beginning of the sunrise was coming up over the horizon, bringing with it a gorgeous sunrise. Absolutely beautiful...a perfect time to make Derek feel as awkward as possible in revenge for the running.

“So, why did you come into the bathroom last night when I was taking a shower?” Stiles asked looking straight ahead. He could have sworn he saw Derek stumble out of the corner of his eye, but that might have been just wishful thinking.

“I had to use the restroom and was half asleep.” Derek said. Stiles gave him a pointed look.

“Really? So why did you bring up the fact that I was singing?” Derek didn’t say anything for a bit as they walked. Oh, the awkward silence was golden.

“You have a good voice. It was surprising.” Derek said softly. And grumpily. And yeah, so maybe Stiles blushed a little because that was unexpected on his part. Like, very unexpected. Like, he would have figured Derek would complement Scott’s ingenuity before he  
complemented Stiles’ voice. And he can’t take a compliment But maybe that’s what building bro-ships over Dr. Who did to relationships.

“Uhh...yeah, um...thanks.” Stiles said. And now the awkward silence was not so golden. Not in the least. “Okay, are you being serious?” Stiles said just trying to break the silence, “I don’t have a good voice at all!” Derek raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yes you do, stop being modest.” Derek said curtly. Stiles didn’t feel like arguing. Which means he totally did feel like arguing but Derek had started running again, thank god it was towards home, and Stiles was not going to argue with that.

It took another mile and a half to reach his house. Derek called the shower first because he apparently had somewhere to go. Stiles let him, deciding instead to sate his grumbling stomach with the holy essence that was Lucky Charms, setting up netflix so he could watch more Charmed. He was determined to finish all eight seasons by the time school started. Which was probably not going to happen, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try his damnedest anyway. Derek finished up and left only about 15 minutes in. Stiles watched another episode before he went up to take his own shower. 

He didn’t grab his Mac this time, electing to just sing whatever came to mind. He double checked that no one was home, calling out the name’s of everyone he could think of, even people he knew wouldn’t be there. For some reason ‘Room of Angel’ from Silent Hill 4 was stuck in his head. So that was the winner. In all honesty, the song creeped him out. But it was pretty awesome still. wasn’t his favorite of the series, pretty good though. 

Stiles was just washing the last of the soap off himself when he heard someone open the door. Oh god, not this again...Stiles cracked the curtain open, grabbing the towel to cover himself. The person standing there surprised him.

“Isaac? ISAAC!? Dude what the hell are you doing!?” Stiles yelled, immediately retreating back into the shower.

“Uh...You were singing.” He said. Stiles bet his mouth was open.

“God, why does that fascinate people all of the sudden? And close your damn mouth, you’re attracting flies.” The clack of teeth hitting teeth was satisfying. Stiles sighed. At least it wasn’t Derek. “Dude, why are you even here?” He could just see the sheepish expression starting to form. 

“Derek called and asked me to check on you...and you know...you haven’t really been around much lately...” Oh my god. He was not falling for Bambi eyes when he couldn’t even see Bambi’s damn eyes! This was not happening......fuck, it was totally happening. Stiles sighed.

“I’m fine dude, don’t worry...but, for real, why did you just barge in.” He felt the shrug more than saw it. There was a pause before he spoke, like he forgot Stiles couldn’t see him through the shower door.

“I don’t know it was just...” Isaac said sheepishly and shrugged again...wow, he had gotten to know the pack a lot better than he thought... “I was worried when Derek called, he normally just texts, you know? And when I got close to the house I heard singing and was confused because I didn’t know you sang so well (Stiles totally did not blush at that...okay, maybe a little. But only a little!) The last thing I remember is being at the front door and...I dunno, then I was here...” Stiles sighed. Stupid werewolves and their stupid super hearing. 

“Okay-just-can you leave so I can actually get dressed please?!” Stiles said, frustrated. There was a slight pause.

“I’m not stopping you.” Oh, and Stiles could just hear the stupid smirk in his voice.

“Dude, get out!” Stiles yelled at him.

“How about you come out and make me.” Isaac said. The one thing that always got Stiles flustered in about two seconds flat; when one of the wolves did something with him and his naked body. Hell, it even made him super flustered when he had just his shirt off and they said stuff. And Stiles knew his face probably resembled a 1920’s bride on her wedding day. Cause today’s bride were anything but blushing.

“Get out or I’m telling Derek you ate the last of his three cheese lasagna!” Stiles said, smirking. Cause he knew Isaac would cave at that. Isaac stood silent for a moment, before sighing.

“Fine, fine! Leaving!” Isaac said, “You better not tell him.

“Get out!” Stiles almost whined. He heard a huff before the door closed. Stiles checked to make sure he was gone, rushing out of the shower to lock the door before he dried off and got dressed. Thank god he always brought his clothes into the bathroom with him (or do people normally do that?) As he was headed towards his room freshly clothed, Stiles heard Isaac talking to someone.

“...thing happened. Yes. Yes. Are you going to call him? No?.......Why Lydia?” At the mention of Lydia, Stiles really started paying attention. “...okay, that makes sense. Alright, I gotta go, you know, squirrels and things.” What the heck did squirrels have to do with anything? “Talk to you later.” Isaac hung up and Stiles heard him walking towards his room. He scrambled away from the door, heading towards his x-box, because games were calling his name. Isaac knocked twice as he was putting in Bayonetta because that was the first game he grabbed.

“Don’t come in, I’m naked.” Stiles yelled out.

“Oh good, I’ll take pictures.” Isaac said as he came into his room. Stiles frowned at him.

“You know dude, if you keep saying and doing stuff about me and my naked body, people are going to get the wrong idea.” Stiles said, starting a new game. He couldn’t remember where he left off, might as well start fresh. Isaac smirked at him.

“Does that make you uncomfortable?” Isaac said.

“Lasagna.” Stiles said as he skipped through the opening credits. He looked to Isaac who was pouting.

“Alright, well you’re obviously perfectly fine so I’ll be leaving now.” Isaac said. 

“Wait, uhh...” Stiles looked at him, “Is everything okay dude? I heard you were on the phone, I’m not really sure why Derek called you to check on me but uh...there isn’t some other freaky thing in town, is there?” Isaac’s eyes widened for a second at the ‘freaky thing in town’ part. But then he relaxed and gave Stiles a genuine smile.

“No, Stiles, he just...thought something was going on. I don’t know, he’s Derek, I don’t pretend to understand him.” Isaac said. They both laughed at that, with mutual understanding.

“Does anyone? And uh...you can stay if you’d like.” Stiles shrugged. Isaac sighed a waited a moment.

“No, I have to go meet Derek somewhere.” Isaac said looking at the ground, “But, uh, I’m meeting up with Scott later tonight if you want to join us.” Stiles smiled a bit.

“Yeah, that’d be awesome. Just text me.” Isaac nodded and left. As soon as he was out of the house, Stiles darted to his computer. Something was going on that they weren’t telling him about. And he was going to find out what it was.

~  
~

So after three hours of fruitless searching during which Stiles couldn’t find a single thing out of the ordinary, he finally gave up and decided to call Lydia. They hadn’t talked much since Jackson moved to New York. At the time, he wasn’t really in the position to help her, and she went to Allison anyway, so...yeah, he was a bit nervous to call her so spontaneously.

“Hello?” 

“Hey! Lydia! It’s, uh...it’s Stiles!”

“Stiles? It’s not even 12pm, what are you doing up?” Stiles scowled at the phone.

“Derek is making me go running with him in the morning now.” Lydia hummed her approval.

“Good, you need to be on a normal sleep schedule.” Stiles scoffed.

“Okay, enough about me. Listen, I need to ask you a question; have you heard anything from the pack recently?” Stiles asked. 

“Like what?” She sounded suspicious.

“I don’t know...I overheard a conversation between Isaac and Derek-”

“You eavesdropped on them.” Lydia said matter of factly. Yep. She would.

“Okay, yeah, I eavesdropped okay? But Isaac mentioned something about calling you so I just wanted to see what’s going on.” Lydia sighed.

“Oh. that.” The venom she could put behind a single word was ridiculous, “Deaton found a squirrel in the woods. Turned completely into gold.” Stiles narrowed his eyes. He stood up from his chair and started pacing. Huh. So that’s what was going on with squirrels. 

“So, what. He thinks King Midas walked into town or something?” Lydia huffed.

“Does anyone actually ever know how Derek’s mind works?” Stiles chuckled at that, “And I told him it wasn’t a squirrel to begin with, it was a Greek Forest Dormouse statuette, probably late 4th century BC.” Stiles ran a hand through his hair.

“So he’s really freaking out over nothing?” Stiles asked.

“Yes, Stiles. Are you done? I have to leave for a meeting with Allison in fifteen minutes.” Stiles sighed. Yeah, they probably wouldn’t have done well together.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Talk to you later Lydia.”

“Talk to you later Stiles.” There was a softer tone to her voice as she was hanging up that brought a smile to Stiles’ face.He checked the clock. It was just barely 11:30. Which means it was a perfect time for a nap.

~  
~  
“Stiles. Wake up.” Stiles groaned at the disembodied voice waking him from a wonderful nap. “Fine, I guess you don’t want curly fries for lunch then.” He heard the shake of a bag.

“Why didn’t you start with the good stuff?” Stiles said literally jumping out of bed for the second time that day, and let it be known that for the rest of the day, pajama pants were happening. Officially. Derek scoffed at him, throwing out the bag in his direction which Stiles was more than happy to grab.

“Oh my god, have I said you’re the best housemate ever? Well, okay, I probably haven’t, but you’re totally up there.” Stiles said, not bothering to change out of his pajamas heading downstairs to the kitchen to enjoy the wonderful awesomeness that was fried food. Derek rolled his eyes and followed him downstairs.

“So I was thinking of watching some more Dr. Who. Wanna join me?” Derek said. Stiles paused for only half a second. Because Derek inviting him to watch tv was apparently a thing now. Because of reasons. And things. Hey, Stiles wasn’t going to complain.

“Well,” Stiles started as he swallowed a mouthful of curly fries, “I’m trying to finish rewatching Charmed. Do you mind if we watch that?” Derek shrugged as Stiles bit into the cheeseburger.

“Sure that’s fine. I never got to see much of Charmed anyway.” Stiles stared at him prompting one of Derek’s ridiculous eyebrows to rise.  
“Dude, how have you not seen Charmed? That and Buffy were my childhood!” Derek did his stupid huff chuckle thing.

“Must of been one disappointing childhood.” Derek snorted. Stiles frowned at him.

“That hurt me. Hurt me deep, Derek.” Stiles said, crumpling up the wrapper of his food and throwing it out. Derek rolled his eyes again motioning upstairs.

“We going to watch stuff or not?” Derek said shortly. Stiles frowned at him again before heading upstairs to his room. Apparently his childhood wasn’t good enough for Derek or something.

“So how far are you into the series?” Derek asked at they settled down. Derek took his computer chair, Stiles took the bed. 

“Only like, season three out of eight.” Stiles said. He explained everything that had happened so far, about Leo, the sisters’ powers, the Halliwell family and their father, basic stuff.

“So Prue is the bitchy one that looks nothing like her sisters.” Derek said as the episode started up. It was more of a statement than a question. 

“Yeah I don’t like her either. Now watch the show.” Stiles said, granting a huff of annoyance from Derek. Dramawolf.

Honestly, Stiles thought Derek would be done after the first episode. But after their first episode, he looked generally interested in the show. Enough that he even asked to keep going. Derek had asked to keep watching this with him.

“What, it’s a good show. A little bit heavy on the sexual pandering thing, but hey, it was the late 90’s.” Stiles explained as Derek shrugged while watching the next episode’s opening sequence. It was...weird watching this with someone else. The only other person who’d watch Charmed with him was his mom. She was the person who got him into the show actually, and that was...awhile ago. Scott hated it because he thought “it’s just the same thing over and over again.” Shows what he knows. He realized that was probably how Derek felt when they watched Dr. Who. Laura had showed him it. She was probably the only person Derek ever really watched it with.

“Wait.” Derek said as the third episode started, “The theme song, that was the song you were singing in the shower.” Stiles stared at him a second before blushing and turning away.

“Yeah, it was. I’ve had it stuck in my head the past couple of weeks.” Stiles muttered, looking back to the t.v. Derek followed his gaze, the opening credits ending. 

“You should sing along with it next time around.” Derek said casually. And it made Stiles’ heart race and he knew Derek would hear it. He didn’t like singing in front of other people. “It’s not that big a deal, don’t worry about it.” Yep, Derek heard his heartbeat.

“No no, it’s fine.” Stiles saying, distracting himself with the episode playing. It actually kind of worked. Because when the next episode came up and Derek looked at him expectantly, with the whole raised eyebrows and everything. And Stiles didn’t know what the heck he was gesturing at. Until the about a third of the way through the song. Stiles blushed, feeling nervous. He focused his attention to the opening credits, not wanting to see Derek looking at him. And he started singing. 

‘I am the son, and the heir.’

It was weird, besides the fact that the opening credits were a dumbed down version of the actual song, he could feel Derek’s presence there. And this song always reminded him of his mom in a subtle way. ‘I am human and I need to be loved. Just like everyone else does.’ She would hum along to it every now and then, she never really sang to it though. So yeah it was weird to be singing to a werewolf about being human and love and that kind of thing.’See I’ve already waited too long. And all my hope is gone.’

The song was over before he knew it though. And he kept his eyes squarely on the tv screen because he really didn’t want to see how Derek was looking at him right now. Because Derek is going to be looking at him weirdly. About ten minutes into the episode Stiles could still feel the Alpha’s eyes on him. He felt himself blush harder, his innards jittering uncomfortably.

“Dude why are-” He froze when looked up to see Derek’s eyes glowing red. And looking right at him. “Derek, what’s going on?..Derek!” When Stiles’ yelled his name Derek finally woke up from whatever crazy werewolf Alpha stupor he was in. He glared at Stiles for a moment before standing up.

“I need to see Deaton.” Stiles gaped at him as he left the room.

“Wait, What?...Is this about that gold thing?” Derek stopped in place.

“...What gold thing?” he turned to look at Stiles. Stiles felt his stomach dropped. What the hell was going on?

“I overheard you and Isaac on the phone.” Derek glared at him at that, “Okay, don’t even glare at me, he was like, right outside my door I couldn’t help it.” Not entirely a lie, “and he said you were going to call Lydia. So I might have, you know, called her.” The glare got sharper.

“okay, see, we need to talk about the way your face looks when it’s like that. Because it’s really intimidating. And people could get the wrong idea and-”

“What did she say Stiles?” Derek ground out.

“Just, uh. Deaton found some golden statue thing in the woods and you thought something supernatural was going on.” Stiles paused the show, it was making it hard to concentrate. Derek looked away from a moment.

“Yes, I do think something supernatural is going on.” Derek finally said, looking back to Stiles, “Again, I need to see Deaton about it, he was suppose to have called me already, but whatever.” Stiles deflated a little at that. There was something going on here and, apparently, he was yet again the frail human who was being left out. “Don’t worry about it for now.”

“Dude, really? Why does everyone think I can’t handle myself?” Stiles said aggravated. Derek took a few steps towards him.

“Besides the fact that you literally ignored everything even remotely supernatural the past two months? I have no idea why the hell anyone would want to leave you out.” And Stiles could feel himself pale at that. Because Derek was right and it was going to take a lot more time for that wound to heal for him. They stood there for a moment before Derek finally sighed, “Listen, I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on, okay? Just...relax. Yeah, it’s probably not a big deal. I’m just following my intuition.” Stiles looked away.

“You swear that’s the only thing going on? I’m kind of trying to make up for all the stuff I did to ignore everyone.” Stiles admitted. Derek sighed again rolling his eyes.

“You don’t need to prove yourself Stiles.” Derek said, “everyone needs a break from stuff sometimes. I’ll try not to bring it up again, you already apologized.” Derek turned, heading out the door again, “I’ll text you if something comes up.” And Derek left. Stiles didn’t miss the fact that he, in fact, did not swear to anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a crappy day. So this is all ya'll are getting for right now. Pckles.


	3. Nascence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why does everyone have to get involved in his life?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO REAL QUICK AND REALLY READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTES!
> 
>  
> 
> I've put links to the songs that Stiles sings (even in earlier chapters) because I recently realized most people probably haven't really heard all of them.
> 
> Journey, Nascence-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLfj3pAlrs4

“Dude, I heard you can sing!” Stiles groaned. He totally did not need this right now.

“Scott, do we really have to do this?”

“Yes we have to do this!” Scott said, “Two other members of the pack have heard you sing and your best friend never has? Uncool, dude, uncool. Like, there has to be a rule in the bro code about that.” Stiles decided today would be a good day to do nothing. Scott decided today would be an awesome day to go find Stiles and bother him about singing. Mainly, because Derek was gone from the house and wouldn’t be back and until much later. Unfortunately, whatever was keeping Derek was also going to keep Isaac from meeting up with them so it was just Stiles and Scott.

“Fine, fine! Just -- no judging alright?” Scott gave him his winning smile and a side hug.

“Never, dude, never. Now serenade me something!” Stiles was taken aback.

“Dude, did you just use the word ‘serenade?’ In a sentence? Correctly?” Scott scowled at him, his cheeks coloring just a bit.

“Stop stalling and just sing something already.” Scott said. Stiles stood there for a moment.

“But, uh. What should I sing?” Stiles said. Scott shrugged.

“I don’t know, what do you normally sing?” Stiles shrugged.

“Just whatever I feel like it at the time?”

“Well what do you feel like singing now?” Stiles gave him a small glare.

“I don’t know, I don’t normally sing in front of people.” Scott rubbed at his face in thought. Then Scott did his whole puppy dog routine for when he had an idea.

“Oh oh!! Sing that thing from game you made me play!”

“Wow Scott, that’s wonderfully specific, let me just sing you this song from that one game that I made you play. You know the one game out of the 40 million I’ve made you play? I totally know what you’re talking about.” Scott scowled at him.

“Dude, it was the one with the desert and the red cloak guys.” Stiles gaped at him.

“You mean Journey? The game with a completely classical music soundtrack? As in no words at all?” At least Scott had enough modesty to blush.

“Yeah well...you could still sing something from it. Like, the thing that goes...uh,” Scott proceeded to try and sing the main theme from the game. It ended up as a series of relatively out of pitch notes. Stiles almost cringed. But he was an awesome best friend and managed not to.

“Okay okay, stop I got it.” Stiles said, Scott stopping soon after. “The song goes like this.” Stiles loved this soundtrack. Like, it was probably his favorite of all time. Just singing it, remembering the game, it gave him chills. He saw Scott shutter a bit as he sang the notes with an “ah.”

“Dude, Stiles...” Scott whispered as he started finishing up the song. He could just imagine all the string and woodwind parts. As he finished, Scott sighed deeply.

“Wow...Stiles, you need to go sing in choir!” Stiles blushed. And this was a big reason he hated singing in front of people. Dealing with compliments sucked.

“Yeah, I know I can kinda sing, can we jus-” But Scott interrupted him.

“You can totally more than sing! Like...” Scott’s eyes got wide,  “you should sign up for American Idol or something!” Stiles shrugged, and screen cheated to headshot Scott in Call of Duty. He’d been idle for like, almost the entire time Stiles was singing anyway. He deserved it.

“Hey- dude! Not cool!” Scott said as Stiles stuck out his tongue. Cause he was mature like that.

“I don’t know why everyone keeps saying I have such a good voice anyway. It’s nothing that special.” He heard Scott actually put his controller down and give Stiles the most incredulous look that Ms. McCall had made famous. “What? What did I do?”

“Duuuude. You really think you don’t have a good voice?” Scott asked, now sprouting the kicked puppy face. And yeah, there went all of Stiles resolve ever.

“Well...I mean I don’t. I have good pitch or whatever, but my voice...” He shot killed Scott in Call of Duty again, hoping his best friend would hurry up and drop the singing thing and get back to the game. He sighed, picking up his controller. Stiles mentally fist pumped in victory.

“Just do me one favor, and I’ll leave you alone about it.” Scott said, lazily picking back up where he left off now five kills behind. Stiles rolled his eyes.

“And what favor is that?” Stiles asked, one of his throwing knives successfully hitting Scott in the head. He only used throwing knives. He was classy like that.

“You don’t have anything during your free period yet right? Join the school choir.” Stiles groaned.

“Dude, I can’t read music for crap. Do you remember 6th grade band?” Stiles shuddered just thinking about it. Scott gritted his teeth as a fire fight broke out. It ended with both players dead.

“You just sang a song from memory. You just have to listen and sing what you hear, you’d do awesome!” Scott said, looking over to Stiles again. Stiles sighed running a hand over his face.

“Dude, really, I don’t think that’s a great idea.” Stiles said, more memories of band flooding in. The concert. The freezing up. And the spit valves...so much spit...Oh god, he was just glad everyone had finally forgotten about that. Scott continued to pout though.

“Come on, please? I mean there’s going to be a whole bunch of other people there! Don’t we have, like, 50 or 60 people in the choir? No one is going to be able to pick you out of the group!” Stiles could just feel himself coiling up defensively.

“Why do you want me in this so badly, Scott?” Scott frowned more at him, losing the puppy dog face for something more serious.

“I’m your best friend, Stiles! Why wouldn’t I want you to do something you’re good at? And you are a very good singer whether you agree or not!” It was actually somewhat...moving. And he did kind of secretly maybe just a little really enjoyed singing...? And Scott had a good point, there would be like, 60 other people there or something his voice would totally blend right in.

“You’re such a sap,” Stiles teased him taking a deep breath, “And...yeah, alright, I’ll join choir. But we aren’t talking about this again.” Stiles said, scowling at the werewolf’s sudden burst of happiness and excitement. He was so totally a puppy.

“Awesome dude! Tell me how it goes, yeah?” Stiles knifed him again, Scott accusing him of cheating. It was totally skill.

He was really not looking forward to the start of school.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

“Dad, I have a small question for you...” Stiles said. It had been a few days since Scott and apparently word got out amongst everyone that Stiles could sing. He had gotten about thirty texts from Lydia, Byod confronted him one evening post-pack meeting, even Allison showed up wanted to hear about it. Stiles refused to sing for any of them using the excuse “you’ll have to listen to me at the choir concert in the fall.” Hey, it worked out pretty well. Except for Lydia. She had given him a week to prepare his voice for her. She’d even bought him expensive tea (which he was secretly super enjoying.)

“What’s up Stiles?” They were eating dinner, alone. Derek was out doing...wolfy things. Or whatever creeperish things he did alone at night. Stiles bit his lip a little, hesitating before he asked.

“...could mom sing well?” His dad looked at him a moment in shock, before clearing his throat and wiping his mouth.

“Well, uh...yeah, actually.” His father said, “Actually, the first time I met her she was singing.” The Sheriff’s eyes glassed over and a smile crept onto his face. Stiles joined him; he’d heard this story before. He didn’t remember the singing part though. “Her neighbor, Mrs. Ferguson - yes that Mrs. Ferguson - she called with a noise complaint. The noise in question was your mother, with the radio on-” Stiles grimaced and chuckled at the same time.

“In the shower.” Stiles said. Cause you know, his mom? Naked? Just ew. John’s smile widened.

“Hehe, yeah.” He said, pausing for a bit.

“Oh my god, dad, really? Just how old are you again?!” Stiles said. John’s grin grew wider.

“He, don’t push your luck kiddo. Anyway, like I was saying, I knocked on the door a few times, didn’t hear anything and the door was open a little, so I came inside, you know, expecting something bad. I could hear the radio on all the way outside so I figured the lady of the house, a Miss Yilmaz, couldn’t hear me. The noise was coming from upstairs, so, naturally, I went up calling for Ms. Yilmaz. When I got all the way upstairs though...” John looked past Stiles, remembering his wife’s voice, “Something came over me. I thought she was an angel or something with a voice like that. Somehow I managed to uh. Well, to interrupt her shower.” He chuckled lightly, “Apparently her door kept opening unless she locked it and kept forgetting to. Yeah...She only sang for me a couple of times after that. She always said it embarrassed her. The only time she would ever sing was on my birthday. Heck, one year it was my present......yeah. Your mother had an amazing voice.” He smiled, evidently finished with the tale, his eyes refocusing. Refocusing directly at Stiles. With the first signs of his interrogation face on.

“What got you curious?” The Sheriff asked just a tad bit suspiciously. Stiles blushed and looked at his plate.

“Uh, no reason just...well, you see, I don’t have anything scheduled for my free period. And Scott kiiiiind of suggested I do choir? My voice isn’t as good as mom’s but I think I inherited her good ear at least.” Stiles was twisting his fork in his hands. The Sheriff nodded at him a bit before returning to his food. He grimaced when he put it in his mouth.

“Whatever you feel like, kiddo. Just make sure you let me know when your concert is so I can take off of work.” Stiles let out a breath of relief. Because he was very certain that his dad was going to ask him to sing. Like, so incredibly certain. Like, he was actually almost insulted his dad didn’t say anything or ask him, but, honestly, he was too relieved. His dad chuckled as he swallowed another bite, “And you must have gotten it from her. You should know I’m pretty much tone deaf by now.”

“Heh, yeah, trust me, I’ve had enough birthdays to figure that one out.” He father put a hand over his heart full of amusement and false hurt.

“Hey, you always told me I sang great!” His father said. They were both smiling as Stiles got up from the table starting on the dishes.

“Don’t get me wrong, it totally does sound awesome. Compared to, like, a dilapidated hippo.” His father chuckled.

“Please, don’t break out the fancy vocabulary on my account. What dictionary told you the definition of ‘dilapidated’ anyway?” Stiles blushed just a bit at his father’s teasing as he swelled with pride. Because his father and he actually had something of a relationship again. And it was awesome.

And that’s when Derek decided to get home. Pissed as hell, if the slamming of the door was anything to go by.

“You already get dinner?” John asked him as the Alpha walked towards the stairs.

“Not hungry.” He grunted. Halfway up he seemed to remember at least some of his manners, “Thanks though.” he said, before heading to his room. Stiles would make something for him. Something that wasn’t vegetarian casserole. Because meat. Werewolves had a thing for it.

Stiles finished up the dishes and was standing outside Derek’s door contemplating his emotions at that moment. Because he realized that he was concerned. Not just about Derek, but about Derek’s feelings. Like, when was that a thing? They’ve only been hanging out for like, a week. Okay, so maybe that’s not entirely true, because Alpha pack nonsense Stiles didn’t really want to be thinking about right now. But he was concerned about Derek. Which was still weird. But okay in the end. Hopefully. He finally gulped and knocked on Derek’s door.

“What, Stiles?” He heard a grumble from inside.

“Can I come in?” Stiles frowned at the silence, “I brought a BLT!” Stiles tried to entice him with food. But felt foolish afterward, because werewolf senses. He would have smelled it. He huffed when there was still no reply at the door. “Fine, I’m coming in anyway.” He wasn’t letting his food go to waste.

“Stiles-!” Stiles froze as he opened the door. Okay, so no Derek wasn’t doing anything like...having some personal time with himself or anything. He was very sweaty and the room smelled like he had been working out. And he was in only his boxer-briefs which was twenty kinds of awkward and did things to Stiles stomach. Corkscrew rollercoaster kinds of things. He blushed and yelped immediately turning around.

“Sorry, sorry! You just had stormed up here, I thought you were just being your normal sourwolf self and you didn’t say anything and I made this just for you because you didn’t eat anything and my ultra amazing delicious food is not going to waste and-”

“Stiles.” Evidently, Derek in the midst of Stiles apologetic blabbering, had managed to come up behind Stiles and now had his hand snaked around Stiles to accept the plate of sandwich and chips. Which created way too much skin contact for Stiles. And if he jumped, who could blame him? But he totally didn’t jump at all...which is to say he totally did jump at Derek touching him. Derek sighed, turning around, the plate in hand.

Stiles peeked over his shoulder. Derek was sitting on the ground at the foot of his bed, watching something on tv with gym shorts and a tank top on. Stiles balked for a minute, before flailing and finally just standing there blushing and huffing. Derek raised an eyebrow at him.

“No!” Stiles said pointing at Derek, “Eyebrow talk doesn’t count as real words!” His other eyebrow perked up as well. Stiles sighed dramatically, turning around to leave.

“Wanna watch something?” Stiles stood still. Well, he was about to go play-- He smiled impishly as an idea formed in his mind.

“Actually,” He started, slowly turning around, “I was about to go play Dark Souls. Wanna join me?” Derek shrugged turning back to what he was watching, “Aww come on. It’ll be fun!” Derek simply took another bite out of his sandwich in response. Stiles pouted at him. Fine! Stiles sat next to him, slumping over, still pouting. Maybe it wasn’t going to happen right now, but he was going to torture Derek with Dark Souls. That was going to be a thing.

Turns out they were watching Law and Order: SVU. And Olivia Bensen was being a total badass. Stiles glanced at Derek who was devouring his food, watching the tv. Olivia always reminded him of his mom. He smiled privately; besides the fact that Mariska Hargitay looked a lot like his mom, she had the same kindness...and kickass attitude. Stiles remembered this one time at halloween when he was 6, he went as Link, because of course every gamer nerd just has to dress up as a character from Zelda at some point in their life. His mom went as Princess Zelda and made both their costumes. And, by the way, she was an epic seamstress. And cook...and mom.

“What?” Derek said. Stiles rubbed his face looking over to see Derek staring at him, blank faced.

“Episode’s deep.” Stiles said, sniffing a bit. Because his nose was clogged. Because of allergies. He had them, sue him. Derek rolled his eyes, standing up and walking toward the door with his dirty dishes. When Stiles made to get up, Derek grunted at him, motioning for him to sit. Stiles huffed and did so as Derek made his way downstairs, probably to clean off his dish or whatever.

Stiles didn’t really want to be there now. It wasn’t that he disliked SVU or hanging with Derek or anything (he enjoyed both very much...though he wouldn’t admit that second part to the pack. Or his dad.) But mom thoughts always made him want to just chill by himself. Which he apparently wasn’t allowed to do anymore, even in his own damn house! He grumbled, picking up the remote, browsing the cable menu to try and find something a bit less...emotional.

Derek came back before he could pick anything else. He raised an eyebrow out of curiosity but took his seat next to Stiles anyway. He decided on Match Game because Gene Rayburn was awesome and America totally needed more retro game shows. Cause the new ones suck. They watched it together and Stiles was surprised at Derek’s contentment. And the twitching at the corners of his mouth when Brett Summers or Betty White made a joke. Especially Betty White. Apparently she was like, smile-crack for Derek. (Twitches of the mouth were officially smiles in Stiles’ book.)

And of course in the middle of them both actually laughing (it was kind of a snort-huff-chuckle thing for the sourwolf) was when Derek’s phone had to go off. He got up, picking it up off his dresser. The moment he looked at it, his face was a deep set frown. He texted back and Stiles sighed quietly. Because frowny-face Derek probably meant moody snap-at-Stiles Derek and the snap-at-Stiles Derek had been a bit more hurtful in recent times. More hurtful than Stiles ever care to admit. So yeah, maybe he considered Derek a...friend of sorts. Whatever. He doubted that was mutual. Besides, it really was just-

“Stiles!” Stiles flinched, snapping up his head to where Derek was staring at him. He raised his eyebrows in the ‘I’m an impatient broodwolf who obviously called your name once or twice before this and is wondering why you didn’t answer his majesty Alpha.’ And yes. Derek’s eyebrow were in fact epic enough to say all of that.

“Sorry, I was spacing out. What’s up?” Yep, there’s scowling-face Derek.

“Nothing, just Deaton letting me know he hasn’t found anything.” Derek re-adjusted himself, settling back against the bed again. He looked towards the tv, “He’s been asking about you lately. You should visit him.” Stiles hmm’ed at that and spaced out more, but made sure to keep his eyes looking at the tv. Why would Deaton be asking about him?

“When does school start up for you?” Stiles was thrown by the how casual it sounded. Knowing Derek probably better than anyone else (which wasn’t much) Stiles was pretty sure Derek asked that for a specific reason. What exactly that reason was, he didn’t know, but there was definitely a reason. But, friends. And things. And he should treat Derek how he wanted to be treated...or something.

“Next week.” Stiles said with a sigh. Because 1.) he was only on the fourth season of Charmed and 2.) he really didn’t want to go back to school. Could he have another summer? Could that be a thing?

“Cora is coming back next Wednesday.” The day before school started. Stiles looked up and Derek matched his gaze, “She’s going to be living here. And starting school with you and the rest of the pack. I already talked to your dad about it, he didn’t care. He was going to make it a surprise but.” Derek shrugged. Stiles stifled a grin and fake pouted at him.

“Aww, dude! How could you ruin the surprise? The best kind of prize is a sur-prise!” Derek snorted at that.

“Debateable.” They both outright laughed and settled back down. Stiles smiled.

“It’ll be good to see Cora again. Has she been calling or anything? I’ve kind of...you know, the whole summer and dodging the supernatural...” Derek nodded.

“Only once a month. She’s still mad at me for sending her off to New York.” When the Alpha pack was finally gone, Derek immediately shipped Cora off to live with some friends he had in New York City. They knew about the supernatural stuff and Stiles was convinced they were elves or fairies or something. It was about ‘Beacon Hills still isn’t safe, we don’t know what else is out there’ blahblahblah protect ALL the things nonsense...although, coming to realize your little sister is actually alive after you had agonized yourself about killing her for six years? (oh yeah, police reports and things. Kate Argent might have been manipulated by Gerard, by she was officially the biggest cunt in existence in his eyes. Even if she was dead.And Stiles wasn’t suppose to know that.) Kinda made sense to send her off. Kind of.

“Well I’m glad she’ll be around more often. Does she share interests with her brother in nerd culture?” Stiles knew the answer was yes, they’d kind of bonded a bit before she left. Derek frowned slightly at him but turned back to the tv a moment later, refusing to answer his question. Stiles gave him an odd look before it dawned on him. Aaaaaaand now he was an asshole. He flinched.

“Right, it’s been six years since you last heard from her and I’m an asshole I should have thought of that before I said anything, sorry, it just-”

“Stiles...” Stiles shut his mouth, thankful that Derek had stopped him before he really dug himself into a grave. And the exasperation in that one utterance of his name was-, “you’re not an asshole. You just don’t think before you speak.” Stiles narrowed his eyes. He poked Derek’s arm, which earned him a half-hearted glare from the Alpha.

“Just making sure you’re, like, actually the Derek I know. And not a pod-person or something. You’re not a body-snatcher are you? Or a doppelganger? Or-”

“Stiles...!” Stiles erupted into a fit of laughter and flinched as Derek feinted at him. Heck, at least it got the Alpha to huff-laugh again. After another little while, Derek changed the tv to the SyFy channel and they watched an absolutely awful original movie by the name Piranhaconda.

“That looks like a winner.” Stiles said laughing about even just the name. Really? Piranha and Anaconda? Really? Who thought that was going to be a good idea.

“We’re watching this.” Derek said, smiling. And actually smiling a little bit this time, not just mouth spasms.

“Dude, hell yes we’re watching this.” Stiles said with another chuckle.

And it was about as bad as they thought. Like, wow. Wow. SyFy outdid themselves with this one. They joked around the entire movie. It was awesome, like, just pure awesome. And Stiles wanted it to be something they did. Like, every once and awhile (or every night, whichever Derek felt like) they’d get an awful movie and just Mystery Science Theater 3000 the shit out of it.

Oh, fun fact about Derek Hale. He was witty. He should have expected it because Peter and Cora but no, he didn’t. And then making fun of movies happened. And Derek was the mastermind. It. Was. Epic...and a little crazy. Because, Derek. Enough said.

His dad came in at about ten to say goodnight. At about eleven Stiles and Derek called it an evening, Stiles heading back to his room. As he got into his pajamas he wondered briefly how Derek slept, like on his side, his belly. Probably his belly. Stiles could totally see that. He had a rabbit once, it did the same thing. It must be an adorable rabbit teeth thing...not that Derek’s rabbit teeth were adorable... not that they aren’t adorable...And double negatives meant it was officially time for sleep.

And if Stiles stayed up for a while and wondered just when he found Derek’s rabbit teeth adorable? Who could blame him, those things were deadly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. In case you haven't realized it I am a HUGE gamer. Now, if you've never played journey PLAY IT. It makes me cry (In the most beautiful of ways) literally every play through. Definitely definitely play it, at least once. And if not, just listen to the soundtrack. It is epic.
> 
> Now, the second thing I wanted to get to. I wanted to know 1.) what songs would you guys, the readers, maybe want me to include? :D Throw some suggestions my way! and 2.) What singer do you Stiles voice would sound like if he was singing? Ryan Shubert is my current pick though I would love suggestions. Your comments motivate me to write! (You can thank NataStar for making me realize I haven't been writing nearly as much as I should!) As always, hope ya'll enjoy and thanks for reading!


	4. Untitled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Make sure to read the notes! This is the last fragmented bit I was working on before things happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few things before the chapter starts. The fandom has kind of been a big punch to the dick for me. Like, first TW season 3 was kind of a punch in the dick. Then the fandom itself was kind of a headbutt and kick to the dick at the same time. Like, both my theoretical writing dick and my literal dick are dying and bleeding, especially from the fandom hate, but the 3rd season was kind of a huge let down too. So both this and my other fic are a bit on-hold for a while. Will see how the second part of season 3 goes and then this might get continued with a bit more fervor. We'll see though! However, everyone who left comments, you are awesome and wonderful and thank you so much! In other news, I've gotten really into the Rise of the Guardians fandom soooooo a fic might sprout up from that ;3 Lets see what the future holds!!

Cora was all kinds of excited to be back. So excited that the first thing she decided to do was epic-glomp Stiles. Like, drop all her bags and literally tackle him to the ground.

“I haven’t heard from you in like two months you freaking idiot!” Cora said, squeezing him hard enough that he almost couldn’t breath. Almost.

“Cora.” Derek grumbled at her, and she stood up, before bending down and basically tossing Stiles up to his feet. Both Hales glared at each other for a few moments before Cora finally frowned and threw herself at her brother. Stiles shuffled his feet looking at the ground after he saw Derek’s look of shock and Cora’s sob. He slowly inched away to give the two at least a small amount of privacy. 

Stiles wandered over to the window, looking outside. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt right now. He was certainly happy for both Derek and Cora; they’d finally be able to live with each other without having to worry about death. But watching their reunion...it kind of hurt. Just a little, to think that, in all honesty, he probably wouldn’t be missed that much if he was sent off to New York for a couple months.

Okay, so he was lonely. Screw him. Yeah, self-imposed exile and what not but...it started before that. Before the Alpha pack. Maybe he should spend some one on one time with Lydia or Scott or Derek. And that caused another flash of pain. Because the only one on one time he really got with anyone anymore was with Derek. And that was now gone.

It...hanging out with a group of people was different than the one on one thing. You don’t get to really know someone even with 3 or 4 people. Like, you get to know them but...it’s just different. One on one, it’s like...like..oh! Like a couple!

...Shit, this was bad...

Why the hell did he have to think about him and Derek as a freaking couple? Just-

“Stiles!” Stiles snapped to attention to see Cora trying to get his attention. She flipped him around to face her and he was glad her hands were on his shoulders. Because he would’ve falling right into her otherwise. Her eyes were narrowed at him.

“You got even spacey while I was gone?” She said with a chuckle and a light punch to his shoulder. He smiled at her.

“Hey, with your brother living with me? I thought I was getting so much better too((Add something witty in later or whatever))”

“Stiles.” Derek said in a definitely halfhearted warning-voice. Both of them laughed and Derek scowled at them for it. He huffed and turned around, and they quickly high-fived before following him out of the terminal.

~  
~

“So what else is New York like?” Scott asked. The pack had gotten together at Stiles’ place one last time before school started, even the human members. Pretty much everyone loved Cora, much to her own chagrin, she had slowly gotten used to the pack over the weeks when the Alpha’s had still been around. She probably still wasn’t used to Lydia trying to make her her apprentice...

“It’s okay. Loud. And very smelly.” She said. 

“Hmph.” Derek grunted, “You didn’t even go to upper Manhattan.” Cora sent him a small glare.

“Not that I didn’t try.” Derek just rolled his eyes at her, while everyone else looked curious.

“Why not?” Allison asked. Cora sighed. 

“The weird fairy creepers Derek had watching over me wouldn’t let me go.”

“They’re called Sidhe.” Derek grunted at her.

“Wait, Sidhe? Like actual Fae?” Lydia asked. Stiles could just see the mental cogs whirling a mile a minute. Derek gave a curt nod and Cora sighed. It was remarkably like Derek. 

“I spent almost the entire time cooped up in an apartment. Now enough about New York. What happened here while I was gone?” Stiles looked at the ground. He really hoped no one called him out on what happened with.

“Not much.” Isaac said. Which wasn’t true at all, apparently he and Derek had a very long talk where “feelings” were brought up and everything. They had gotten into a good place with one another again, which was good, but trust was still redeveloping between them. 

“Danny’s single again,” Lydia quipped. Cora gave her a look.

“Who the hell is Danny?”

“Remember the gay athlete guy who was dating the twin?” Lydia said. Stiles was surprised she was reigning in her normal exasperation.

“No.” Lydia sighed, disappointed in her protege. 

“Well I think we should do something.” Scott said with a grin. Both Hales perked an eyebrow at him and he squirmed.

“What did you have in mind?” Cora asked. Scott smiled shyly.

“Well...have you ever played Settlers of Catan?” he asked. Lydia and Stiles narrowed their eyes and one another with wicked grins. Isaac looked nervously to Scott, Byod was his normal apathetic self. Derek rolled his eyes at all of them.

“Of course I have.” Cora said, with a slight smirk eyeing Derek, “We’ll have to play with teams though.” Lydia immediately grabbed her, Allison grabbed Scott, Isaac grabbed Byod. And suddenly Stiles felt like the last kid to get picked for dodgeball. He looked sideways at Derek, because of course he’d get paired up with Derek. Derek didn’t say anything in normal people talk. He did, however say “I’m not moving get over here.” In eyebrow speak. With one little perk. Goddamn it.

Stiles sighed slowly trudging over to sit next to the chair Derek had settled in. And it was awkward. But that wouldn’t stop him from beating the shit out of Lydia! Just because he was teamed up with Derek, who has about as much strategic sense as a decaying aardvark, didn’t mean he’d lose this.

He got this!

 

He didn’t have that.

They played two rounds. The first round Derek bullied him into every poor-ass decision he’s ever seen someone make in Catan. Like, they didn’t even have a road to a trade route, got blocked by both Lydia/Cora and Allison/Scott’s roads, and just failed. Epically.

The second round went a little better, but only because everyone was teasing Derek about his failing Catan skills so he gave up and handed the reins to Stiles. Stiles somehow managed to take up literally all of the ore. Literally. He wasn’t entirely sure how that happened, but in two turns he got 17 ore. So, with his almost complete monopoly over that resource he almost won. Except, apparently Cora and Lydia became an unstoppable force together (he’s not really that surprised) and still ended up winning. Derek watched silently like the creeper he was.

The pack left soon after they finished their second game and Cora went upstairs to chill by herself for the night before school started. She still wasn’t used to the new pack, that much was obvious. She was only really affectionate with Stiles, derek, and Lydia and only when no one but them were watching. Stiles was sitting in the kitchen, trying to study up on his summer reading. God, he hoped this year was going to be as bad, or at least as stressful, as the last.

“Have you gone to see Deaton yet?” Stiles looked up, feeling Derek’s intense gaze. He was standing in the doorway,Completely straight faced Stiles sipped at his root beer. He watched Derek’s eyebrow twitch just slightly as he slurped the soda obnoxiously. It took literally every ounce of self control not to smirk. After a minute of pure slurping, and yeah he did it just to get on Derek’s nerves. Just a little bit, for ruining his master plan in Catan.

“Yes or no?” Derek literally ground out. Stiles sighed, looking at the ground, which made Derek scoff. He answer just became really obvious and Stiles winced. “So that’s a no.” Derek sounded...annoyed. Not necessarily angry, just...frustrated.

“Dude, I don’t understand why it’s so important that I go see Deaton.”

“I don’t see why you keep avoiding this so much.”

“Uh, hello? The guy is almost as big a creeper as you. That whole Yoda thing going on? I’m not buying it.


End file.
